1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer game system and a storage medium for use with the game system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is known a computer game system which requests a player to input a password when he plays the game from the start or when he continues playing the game from the position where he suspended the game last time. In the game system of this kind, the game software notifies the password to the player according to the game completion degree or the player himself sets the password when suspending the game. Therefore, the player naturally knows the password which is required to restart and continue the game, and hence he can voluntarily go ahead in the game.
By the way, as appreciated from an example of a serial TV story or a serial publication, the compulsory interruption of the story makes the watchers or the readers wait for the next story and has an effect to keep on attracting the interests of the watchers or the readers, thereby booming the story and the publication. Applying this phenomenon to the game requires distributing a single game as a plurality of separate products (titles), and it requires a very complicated and troublesome management of manufacturing and distribution. In the above-mentioned conventional game system, the progress of the game is controlled by the player himself, and hence the game cannot be compulsorily interrupted by the software side to stop the progress of the player and make him wait.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a game system and a storage medium for use therewith, which can limit the player""s voluntary game progress and make the player wait, thereby attracting the interests of the players for a long time.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a game system including: a manipulating unit to be manipulated by a player; a storage unit for storing program and data required to execute a game; an executing unit for executing the game based on a manipulation of the manipulating unit and storage contents in the storage unit; an interrupting unit for interrupting a progress of the game when the game being executed reaches a predetermined progress level; an requesting unit for requesting the player to input information to release the interruption of the game in response to the interruption of the game by the interrupting unit; and a managing unit for comparing the manipulation of the manipulating unit responsive to the request by the requesting unit with a releasing condition of the interruption which is stored in the storage unit in advance, for permitting the progress of the game ahead of the point of the interruption if the manipulation satisfying the releasing condition is performed and for inhibiting the progress of the game ahead of the point of the interruption if the manipulation satisfying the releasing condition is not performed.
In accordance with the game system thus configured, the progress of the game is interrupted if the game reaches the predetermined progress level, and the input needed to release the interruption is requested to the player. By this request, the player knows that the game is interrupted and that the releasing of the interruption requires a specific manipulation. If the player performs an appropriate manipulation, the interruption of the game is released and the player can restart the game. If the manipulation by the player is not appropriate, the game interruption cannot be released. The supplier of the game software does not notify the necessary manipulation during the progress of the game, but may periodically notify the player of the necessary manipulation via various media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, telephone and/or the internet. Thus, the voluntary game progress by the player is restricted and they are forced to stop playing the game until they knows the necessary manipulation via those media. As a result, the interests of the players may be reliably kept attracted to the game for a long time with a single game title.
Preferably, the game system may further include a saving unit for saving data corresponding to the progress level of the game by the point of the interruption, after the managing unit inhibits the progress of the game ahead of the point of the interruption. By this, the data by the time of the interruption may be safely saved.
In a preferred embodiment, the managing unit may be enabled when executing the game ahead of the point of the interruption based on the data saved by the saving unit. By this, the interruption is maintained even if the game is restated based on the saved data.
In another preferred embodiment, a plurality of levels may be set as the predetermined progress levels of the game, and the managing unit may inhibit the progress of the game ahead of the point of the interruption and permit the execution of the game within the progress levels prior to the progress level corresponding to the point of the interruption, if the manipulation satisfying the releasing condition is not performed. Therefore, even if the interruption is not released yet, the events prior to the interrupted point may be freely executed. The predetermined progress level of the game may be set on the basis of an achieved position in the game, or on the basis of a playing time of the game.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a storage medium for storing a game program readable by a computer game system to perform the processes of: an interrupting process for interrupting a progress of a game when the game being executed reaches a predetermined progress level; an requesting process for requesting a player to input information to release an interruption of the game in response to the interruption of the game by the interrupting process; and a managing process for comparing a manipulation by the player responsive to the request by the requesting process with a releasing condition of the interruption which is stored in advance, for permitting the progress of the game ahead of the point of the interruption if the manipulation satisfying the releasing condition is performed and for inhibiting the progress of the game ahead of the point of the interruption if the manipulation satisfying the releasing condition is not performed.
In accordance with the storage medium, the game system can execute the appropriate interruption and releasing of the interruption by reading the content of the storage medium by the game system.
The nature, utility, and further features of this invention will be more clearly apparent from the following detailed description with respect to preferred embodiment of the invention when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings briefly described below.